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Tuesday, September 23, 2014

How I celebrate the Fall Equinox

It's official, Fall is here! What does that mean? That darkness starts to dominate, the leaves start to turn beautiful, vibrant colours and the air turns fresh and crisp.

In the Summer time, I love rising early and greeting the sun with Sun Salutations. In the Spring I love re-energizing and renewing with Hip and heart openers.I feel like I am blooming right along with the flowers and the trees. What does my Fall practice bring? Well, I have 2 moods in Fall when it comes to my practice. I love a really vigorous Ashtanga style practice. Nothing makes me feel more renewed then a good, sweaty practice, and Ashtanga definitely brings that on! I feel strong, powerful and renewed. As if layers of staleness has been peeled off of me. If it's not Ashtanga than I crave a more Yin practice. Balance, deeper stretches and longer holds in postures really provide me with a great conversation with my body; A wonderful opportunity to listen to my body and give it what it really needs.

Below are some of my favourite asanas that I weave into my Yin practice:

Lizard Pose(Image: Fitsugar)
I like to refer to this one as 'The Opener' because, to me, it feels like the ultimate stretch throughout my body. This pose opens the hips, hip flexor and hamstrings. And when taking the quad stretch option(shown below) it is a wonderful opener for the shoulders, chest and neck!

(Image: Kristin Mcgee)

Frog Pose(Image: Gaiam)
This one can feel a bit intense. I also ease into it, following the breath to go deepen the posture. Another great opener for the hips, inner thighs and groins. I also find this one to be a great chest and shoulder opener!

Pigeon Pose(Image: Leanitup)

I think this may be my favourite posture of all! I love to add this one into my personal practice.
A great opener for the groin, hip flexor and Psoas as well as the hip rotator muscles. I find this posture helpful on days that my sciatic nerve is acting up.

My diet also takes a wonderful shift during this time because now in season are some of my favourite foods. Squashes, pumpkins and apples, oh my! This is the time when I like to fire up my oven for roasting vegetables. Playing with spices like curry, turmeric and Paprika. Next up is the slow cooker, plugged in heating up some homemade applesauce made with apples bought fresh that morning from The Farmers Market. Or it's whipping up some fresh minestrone soup loaded with sweet potatoes and Squashes.

While a small part of me mourns the end of Summer, A bigger part of me is excited to see what this new season brings!